Standard 3

Cultural Leadership
A Cultural Leader studies the past, considers the present, looks to the future in order to understand a school’s identity and place in the community. They reflect on each, and with the help of key stakeholders, including staff, students, parents, and community members, they create a shared vision, values and goals that drive decisions making. This enables the leader to create a safe environment that fosters improved staff morale, student achievement and collaboration. They are able to identify barriers that keep the school from reaching their shared vision and work together to break down those barriers. They are also able to identify the successes, celebrate them and build upon them to improve student achievement.

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3a. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The school executive understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative environment can play in the school’s culture.

Artifacts

Copy of PLC minutes:
I attended weekly Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings throughout the school year.


Copy of Instructional Assistant PLC Meeting
I assisted our instructional coach in creating and implementing Instructional Assistant PLC twice a month. During the PLC's instructional assistance collaborated on ideas to address specific school needs and in assisting their teachers and students. The assistants alo collaborate to organized and raise money for our school Relay For Life team.


Copy of PLC Schedule:

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3b. School Culture and Identity: The school executive develops and uses shared vision, values and goals to define the identity and culture of the school.

Artifacts

Staff School Culture Results Document:


Copy of agenda from Staff meeting that I shared survey results for:


School Culture and Climate Survey:
I participated in the process of developing the questions, creating the electronic version and compiling the data to share with staff and SIT.
The results of the survey were discussed in our SIT meetings and help us to make current decisions for our SIT plan, committee plans and next year's planning.


Bulletin Board and Placards:
I created a bulletin board of colleges and college placards to place on each teacher's door. This was to promote to our students, even at a young age, their options and our goal for them to attend college. Our goal was to provide exposure in an effort that they would begin asking questions and understand the importance of their education.


Results from "What is going Well/Where Can We Improve" Charts:
The charts are used to make improvements for implementation of activities, programs and faculty meetings.

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3c. Acknowledges Failures; Celebrates Accomplishments and Rewards: The school executive acknowledges failures and celebrates accomplishments of the school in order to define the identity, culture and performance of the school.

Artifacts

Love the Bus Flyer & Certificate:
Throughout the week, we did different activities to celebrate and thank our bus drivers.




Awards Day Agenda:
Every 9 weeks, we conduct an awards day ceremony for students in each grade level for academic and social skills excellence


Emails to staff:


Staff Culture Calendar:
The SIT chair and I developed a calendar of events for hte staff to get together to celebrate and build relationships.

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4d. Efficacy and Empowerment: The school executive develops a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff, which influences the school’s identity, culture and performance.

Artifacts

Email for teachers to create wiki page:
I worked with Kindergarten teachers to focus on science instruction for my internship project. One of the recommendations was that the teachers create a wiki page to keep all of their units and resources they were collecting. I sent an email offering to create it, but pushing them to do it. One of the teachers took on the task. I helped her to set it up and showed her the initial editing features.


Problem of Practice Evaluation Plan:

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Internship Activities:

• I attended the Edgecombe County Leadership Academy week at the beginning of the school year. During this week, a team from our school worked with other schools and district personnel in the district to review district data, as well as individual school data. We participated in a process to create a new vision and mission statement for the district.
• I participated in the process of finalizing our Strategic Plan (SIT Plan) with the School Improvement Team. Part of the process included participating in a district review. We met with other schools and reviewed and edited each school's plan. I then attended the board meeting to present our plan to the school board.
• I attended weekly Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings throughout the school year. During the meetings I participated in conversations around assessment, data and practices to use in the classroom.
• Attended, participated and facilitated SIT meetings throughout the year. During the meetings I presented data, as well as participated in the discussions and decision making for the school with the team.
• Facilitated the process for identifying and writing the core values for our school with input from staff members, parents and students.
• Participated in the process of writing questions for a staff, parent and student survey with the SIT. I then put the questions in an electronic survey format. Once all participants completed the survey, I tallied the data and put it in a format to share out results with staff and SIT. We identified areas of for improvement and used the feedback in decision making throughout the year.
• Conducted a culture survey with the staff. I compiled the data and presented at a SIT meeting, as well as a faculty meeting. We used the information to begin our process for writing our core values and to identify areas to address in a plan for improving the culture and morale.
• I worked with our media coordinator to train our third grade teachers on SuccessMaker, a program the district adopted for remediation for our struggling students. We worked with the teachers to create a plan for implementation, including recreating a laptop checkout process, and a process for students to log in with limited licenses available. I created a video to assist teachers in logging in their students.
• The teachers at our school select committees and act as the chair of each committee. The administrative team serves on the committees and offer input and support when needed.
• I created "What Went Well/Areas We Can Improve" charts for faculty meetings, in house training, community events and processes such as the trial flex schedule for the library. We share the feedback and use it to make decisions and improvements for the school.
• I participated in discussions for Awards Day celebration, distribution of Awards Day flyer and presentation of awards at our Awards Day Ceremony.
• I participated in the planning process for our Viking Vouchers program, a PBIS initiative at our school.
• At the beginning each faculty meeting, we take time for staff to announce any celebrations.
• Throughout the year, I have sent our staff emails acknowledging and celebrating actions of students and staff members and events. I also try to acknowledge the staff during faculty meetings.
• I created videos of teachers successfully using best practices and shared them with the staff in faculty meetings and professional development. Videos included teachers implementing Kagan strategies, guided reading groups instruction and using technology in the classroom.
• Co-organized "Love the Bus" Campaign to acknowledge and Celebrate our school bus drivers.
• Each month, we celebrate a 2 Star Teachers as part of our district PBIS initiative. I worked with our instructional coach to begin to name an Instructional Assistant of the month in an effort to celebrate and thank them for their contributions to the school.
• I assisted our instructional coach in creating and implementing Instructional Assistant PLC twice a month.
• My problem of practice (internship project) focused on providing purposeful, engaging science instruction in the Kindergarten classrooms. I met with the Kindergarten teams to collaborate in reviewing unpacking documents, creating units of study around essential questions and desired learning outcomes, and creating and evaluating assessments.
• I participate the in Stocks Cheerleader initiative. Staff members are matched to another staff member and offered them weekly "cheers" and "pick me ups".

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Coursework/Trainings:

• Distinguished Leadership Practices (DLP) assignment:
  • Assessing and Enhancing Your School's Identity- In this assignment, I worked with my principal to assess the school's current status of it's mission statement, vision statement and core values and/or beliefs. Once I rated each, I then had to create a narrative justifying each rating. The final component of this assignment was to create a list of 3-5 importnat steps that I as a school leader would need to take to improve or enhance the current status of each.
• Created a Personal Vision Statement
• Administrative Entry Plan: Created Plan for first 45 days at internship site. The plan include what I would do to oriente myself with the school culture, people and curriculum.
• Site Visits: A.B. Combs Elementary Leadership Magnet School, KIPP: Gaston Preparatory School, and East Garner Magnet Middle School
• Turn Around Schools Site Visits: Hertford Middle School, Overhills High School and Beddingfield High School
• Senge: The 5th Discipline Presentation on Mental Models
• Presentation on Political Framework from Boleman and Deal's book,
• Attended the North Carolina Association of School Administrators (NCASA) Conference in March 2012.
• Attended the NCDPI Collaborative Conference for Student Achievement (CCSA) in March 2012.
• Case Study on 90/90/90 Schools
• Case Study on a comparison of two principal's approaches (rudimentary response versus accomplished response) from Washington Elementary PreK-6 Rural Elementary School
• Leading and Changing School Culture Course Fall 2012
• Facilitative Leadership
• Understanding by Design
• Schooling by Design
• Digital Storytelling
• School Justice and Equity with Lynda Tredway
• Guidance Counselor Training that explored how to most effectively utilize guidance counselors and make them an intricate part of the leadership and decision making teams

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Readings:

• Nudge
• Creating the Opportunity to Learn
• How to Win Friends Influence People
• Crucial Conversations
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Leading with Inquiry and Action
• Leading In a Culture of Change
• Revisiting Professional Learning Communities At Work
• The 48 Laws of Power
• Working With and Evaluating Difficult Employees
• Reframing Organizations
• The Fifth Discipline Field Book
• A Framework for Understanding Poverty
• Trust Matters
• Teach Like A Champion
• Emotional Intelligence
• Teaching with Love and Logic

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